New Maps and Characters for Overwatch Will Be Free

Jeff Kaplan, the director of Blizzard’s upcoming FPS Overwatch, released a video on the official Overwatch Youtube channel addressing several community concerns and detailing their plans for addressing these issues. First and foremost was the matter of new maps and playable characters being added to the game over time. This has been the greatest concern players have had over Overwatch as the game relies heavily on changing characters mid-game and locking off certain characters with paywalls would create a serious balancing problem. Fortunately, Blizzard has decided that they will release all new characters and maps in free updates rather than use any type of DLC model. It’s certainly a bold move, but hopefully it will prove the smart choice for the game in the long run. Kaplan also mentions that some of the upcoming characters they have in the works already have Easter eggs hidden in some of the maps.

Kaplan also discussed various minor updates in the works for the game. These include the options to turn the in-game music and kill-cam off. They are also working on improving the HUD to provide more information on which players are dead and improvements to the results screen. The end-game cards will be rebalanced to better highlight the best players in a round and there will be improvements to the “on-fire” system. In Overwatch, on-fire refers to a player having a strong streak and the developers plan to adapt the system to better highlight the biggest threats on a team.

You can check out the full video discussing these topics here. What are your thoughts on these developments for Overwatch? What lingering concerns do you still have with the game? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.